Category Archives: marketing

If you want to get into a heated debate, then discuss bulk email vs spam. This topic will continue to be controversial as long as email remains the #1 ROI (Return On Investment) in the digital marketing world. To begin to understand the difference, we have to look at the definitions as a starting point. Before we do that, let’s look at a few Bulk Email Myths that will get answered along the way.

Bulk Email Myths

Everyone tells me bulk email is illegal – False

bulk email is the same as Spam – False

Is bulk email a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003? – False

I can bulk email without following the rules – False

Spam is without question one of the most abusive sources of email we get everyday in our inbox no matter how strong we set our inbox spam filter. The problem, nobody can even get the definition of spam correct, not even Merriam-Webster. Using the part of the definition that is correct, we define it as the following;

Spam

(noun) irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.

(verb) send the same message indiscriminately to (large numbers of recipients) on the Internet.

How is Bulk Email Different?

So that is the same as bulk email, right? Wrong. We will use an analogy that we can all relate to. You walk to the mailbox to get your mail. You open up the box and there are all the flyers and credit card offers and catalogs that you hate to get because you never look at them so you just have to throw them away.

Some of those ads just sent out to all addresses blindly without regard to who might be on the other end. You want to call or send a letter to the company to stop receiving those ads, but there is no phone number or address on the advertisement. Finally, you get in touch with the company to remove yourself from their mailing list, but you keep getting the ad week after week with no end. You file a complaint and even talk to anyone who will listen to get yourself off of the mailing list. All to no avail. That is spam.

Bulk Email & CAN-SPAM

Bulk email, by comparison, are ads that you receive, but they are clearly marked as ads. When you want to no longer receive these ads, you have a clearly defined way of stopping them. These can be sent to unsolicited recipients (any address) as advertisement for products or services, but you have to follow the rules. In fact, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 clearly and explicitly states that recipients can receive unsolicited mail as long as you adhere to the guidelines found in the Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003). That is the difference between Bulk Email vs Spam.

Since the Act was passed, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has largely not enforced any of these guidelines anyway. It is still important from a liability perspective to make sure that you follow the rules. Nobody likes “junk” mail, but as long as it is effective companies will continue to use it for a good reason. It produces results. That is where an ESP (Email Service Provider) who is knowledgeable on the rules and guidelines comes into play. Bulk email is not the same as spam, but it can easily cross over the line and become spam which opens you up to liability.

We rounded up some surprising video statistics that you may find interesting. These stats range from 4 years old to current and we included all of them to demonstrate the jaw-dropping amount of growth in this field and it shows no signs of letting up in the near future.

There is still a great deal of skepticism surrounding the use and impact of video as the new marketing rally point, but let’s look at the genesis behind video and get a clearer picture of why this media is taking the world by storm.

First of all, video has been around for a long time now and it has always been at the center of marketing – commercials, shows, infomercials and theatrical. Video is the only medium that can transfer emotion and trust without the presence of the video subjects. In other words, you can sell 24/7 and you can have an instant bond with your audience – all without having to be in the room.

The final piece of the puzzle? Video has become affordable so it is going mainstream. We all know it and these video statistics prove it. No longer do you have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a video marketing budget. High-end, professional video and Motion Graphics start for as little as $500 per finished minute. Still not sure? Here are a few tidbits that will help you change your mind.

1.8 Million Words That is the value of one minute of video, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.

comScore, which measures online engagement and use (the percentage of Internet users who view at least one video online over the course of a month) says the average user is exposed to an average of 32.2 videos in a month

100 Million – The number of Internet users who watch online video each day

90% – The percentage of online shoppers at major retailer websites who said they find video helpful in making shopping and buying decisions

75% – The percentage of executives who told Forbes that they watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week

50% watch business-related videos on YouTube

65% visit the marketer website after viewing a video

16 minutes and 49 seconds – According to comScore, that is how much time the average user spends watching online video ads every month

80% – According to the Online Publishers Association, that is the percentage of Internet users who recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days. It gets even better. Of that 80%, 46% took some action after viewing the ad. In fact:

26% looked for more information about the subject of the video

22% visited the website named in the ad

15% visited the company represented in the video ad

12% purchased the specific product featured in the ad

64% – That?s how much more likely website visitors are to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video

comScore – visitors who view videos stay on the site an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don’t view videos

Realtors – An Australian real estate group reports that real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos

59% – According to Forbes Insight, this is the percentage of senior executives who would rather watch a video than read text

Forbes – 65% of those who view a video click through to visit the vendor website, 50% look for more information and 45% report that they contacted a vendor after seeing an online video ad. About 50% of those who viewed an online marketing video went on to make a purchase for their business.

Implix email marketing survey found that including a video in an introductory email increased the click-through rate by 96%

The Forrester Marketing group surveyed businesses in 2010 and found that video did even better. When marketers included a marketing or explainer video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200% to 300%

Eloqua, an automated email marketing provider, noted that including video in an introductory email reduced the number of subscriber opt-outs by 75%

51% – One online marketer reported a 51% increase in subscriber-to-lead conversion rates when video was included in an email marketing campaign

According to research by Visible Measures, 20% of your viewers will click away from a video in 10 seconds or fewer. You?ll lose about 1/3 of your viewers by 30 seconds, 45% of them by 1 minute and almost 60% by 2 minutes. And those numbers remain the same no matter how long the video is.

iPhone users tend to watch for about 2.4 minutes. Android video statistics give a video three minutes to engage the user and Symbian users stick around for just over 4 minutes. iPad users have the longest attention spans of all, sticking with a web video for an average of 5 minutes.

16% – That is the percentage of YouTube videos that are embedded, linked or shared on Tuesdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to Sysomos

Jun Group (2011), videos that are 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37 percent more often than those that last between 30 seconds and 1 minute. If you make your video longer, that stat goes down. Those shorties are only shared 18% more often than videos of longer than 1 minute.

Video statistics show that video promotion is over 6 times more effective than print and online (Atlas)

Video content can increase the chances of first page Google ranking by 53 times (Cisco)

Forrester Research found that videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages

The Fusiform Facial area makes us pay attention to faces. This is an actual brain function that hard-wires us to use the human face as a gathering point for information and believability.

Voice conveys rich information. Yes, the simple sound of a human voice speaking to us has an amazing way of converting information into meaningful content.

Emotions are contagious. Here is a subtle but powerful aspect that we may take for granted. The body language of emotions is an appealing and we naturally love to share.

Movement grabs attention. Another trait that runs deep in our collective anthropological DNA is the power of peripheral motion. Since the stone age, we have survived by noticing things in motion. Looks like we still do!

We hope these video statistics were interesting and that they help you understand where video is in the marketing mix today. As these video statistics show, you can’t afford not to be in this segment of video marketing as those who dominate this channel will be the market leaders of tomorrow.

Development of Cloud Intelligence

SaaS (Software as a Service) has revolutionized the way companies interact and engage customers. The cloud is the new business marketplace because it allows interaction at any touchpoint, anywhere in the world.
Marketing today is not the same marketing it was yesterday. Humans, to connect online or offline, must have visual integration, interactive platforms and engaging activities. Those are now requirements of Customer Relationship Management and must be an integral function of any company today.
The 360 degree view is not limited to just clients though. Today’s business entity not only has external clients, but internal clients as well. Any segment of the business must be completely transparent within an organization – Sales, Marketing, Finance, HR and Operations must now have the ability to share and interact with data across divisions.
That is Cloud Intelligence and we make it happen.
• Share data across departments, divisions and enterprises
• Collaborate real-time on critical flags, triggers and events
• Develop actual and projected trends based on data and data modeling
• Do all of this at a fraction of the cost of onsite systems
• Integrate seamlessly through Salesforce and other applications that generate client and market data